You sure it's not just an IR interference issue with something else? The remote uses the sensor bar to re-calibrate, and all that the bar has in it is 8 IR senders. I found at one place I set mine up, some christmas lights has to be turned off to use the system, as the pointer was highly erratic, and would work even when not pointed at the TV.

I'm positive it's not the physical setup. I changed nothing but the software update. One minute it's working smooth as butter and the next it's like chewing on rocks. Christmas tree lights can definitly affect the remote's receiver - saw this first hand at my brother's on Monday. Those issues aren't at play here at my place.

I've since made some adjustments to remedy the situation as best as possible. I cranked the sensitivity and moved the sensoor bar to the bottom of the TV on top of its little stand. The way I like to hold my hand though requires the bar to be a bit higher so I will probably attach it to the TV just below the screen (which is 4 inches higher than it is right now). I'll try it on top of the TV again tomorrow, but like I mentioned, the current performance is not anywhere close to what it was when I first hooked it up.

Wii code: 8513 0580 4643 5279 - I should have a Mii or two created by tomorrow night.

Now for a little Zelda before bed...

What did I miss with "Link to the Past" that made me pass it off as a fancy remake of "The Legend of Zelda"? "Ocarina of Time", on the other hand, was time well spent. Well balanced game play, loads of side quests, and it was easy enough to be relaxing at the end of a long day.

Bruno, your store hunting was an inspiration. I hope I don't cave and pay an extra $200 to get one online. February, I'll find one...

Right now I'm finding Wiis in Walmart of all places, picked one up, and I've also picked up Rayman and Zelda.

Thoughts so far: Wii Sports is just fun, haven't played all the games there, but it would be a blast for a party.

Rayman is funny, and I see I'm going to have a lot of fun there, I loved the cow tossing, First time I was laughing hard enough to not get a good throw. Need to play more, lots more.

I've not gotten to Zelda yet, going to play after I post this.

Wii code: 1866 9499 5376 9057, I've already added in everyone else on the board.

Now on to Zelda.

I'm now in the second "dungeon" in Zelda and damn is it ever difficult (for me). Just a lot of running and jumping, the two things I'm not the greatest at. I fall off edges far too often still - probably because I use the analog stick as if it were digital. I'll have to give it a bit more finese or this level is going to drive me batty. Each fall means instant death which aso means starting at the entrance of the
room again. And obviously that means having to repeat all the same PITA running and jumping.

I'd like to see a game in a similar vein with a more open (non-linear) plot where there's also more interaction with the environment. Link can't really climb very many things, nor is there any dedicated jump command (it just happen automatically when you run off an edge). Maybe a cross between Zelda, Tomb Raider and Ultima 4 and 5. Damn, that would be sweet.

Oh yes... I also suck at horseback combat.

Had insane fun last night with the Happy Feet game. Not so much playing it, but watching the kids just about turn themselves inside out playing the dancing game (bit like dance dance revolution, but flick the wiimote in the direction of the arrows instead of step on a pad)

I am definitely liking this fitness for kids idea. They ended up tired out and slept very well!

(But I agree that Monkey Ball sucks with this UI - or maybe I'm just incapable of getting past the parrots on the first world:-(

I'd love to have someone here right now to do this really lame timed jump routine I'm in the middle of. Personally I hate it when games force you to jump little platforms in a specific (short) amount of time. This whole dungeon in Zelda has that all over the place. Very frustrating to say the least. With my suckiness at the running control it's hard to go both fast and precise. So either I die (by falling) or I don't reach the end of the sequence fast enough (meaning I have to jump all the way back to the start to try it again). Arrrrgh!

Frustration takes the fun away from gaming really fast. And when you've accomplished the goal, instead of being satisfied, I'm just left thinking "damn, that was insanely difficault and completely lame!"

The least they could do it finally remove the BS hold-over from the original Zelda games and just let you save and continue from anywhere. And I mean from the EXACT spot you've saved in. People who don't want to save as often don't have to. People who do (like me) can do so without wanting to throw the controller (without strap) at the TV.

Which dungeon is this, Bruno? I can't remember what the "second" dungeon was. At the moment I'm stuck in the water temple with no idea what to do.

As for the saving part, there is a little trick to that, if you search the dungeons carefully enough. You'll find this really weird chicken...person...thing... which will let you warp out of any dungeon and then warp back in no matter where you were, and it will warp you back to the exact spot you left from. That's something similar to what you're wanting. You can just warp out, save, then warp back in again.

Now that I think of it, are you talking about the temple with the monkeys? If so, I think I know what you're talking about. Are you at those bridges that turn when the wind blows? I hated that dungeon, honestly. It was extremely difficult for me to figure out what to do next. And I apologize, but I'm not sure I could walk anyone through it at this point.

Man, I really need to play Zelda again. I haven't had long periods of time where I could play, so I've just been playing Excite Truck and unlocking new trucks.

I hate "falling death" in video games pretty much anywhere it exists. I hate figuring out a puzzle, managing my character's health, etc. and then falling off a cliff that in one instant destroys everything I've accomplished. However, just about ever every adventure game seems to include platform jumping at one point or another (did Ocarina have platform jumping?).

Rule #7 :

Quote:
Let the Player Turn the Game Off --- A player should be able to save and exit the game at any point, losing at most a few seconds of progress as a result. Our objective as designers is to entertain, not punish – and many games force players to play for extra minutes, even hours, until they can reach a “save game point”, forcing them to recapitulate those minutes if they quit prematurely, in frustrating repetition of now-familiar events. It’s a commercially important rule, akin to the old adage, “the customer is always right”. Players have been known to give up on games that did not follow this rule, and even return them.

Thanks Tony. I knew I wasn't alone in thinking this.

I'm currently battling boredom and feelings of aggression in the Goron Mines - the lava dungeon.

The puzzles aren't a problem. The combat isn't a problem (once you figure out weaknesses of what you're fighting). Basic running is my biggest challenge.

As the camera changes angle you have to compensate with your controller. So you might be pulling back (down) on the stick to run "ahead" and suddenly the camera shifts and you're now turning left or something similar. I find it a total pain in the ass trying to run and jump from small platform to small platform while avoiding lava giesers.

The save issue means that if I want to quit I have to go all the way back to the start of the dungeon. The part with the timing I'm stuck at is in the third room. The first two rooms are already a pain in the ass. At least when you die in the third room you can just continue from its entrance (losing one heart's worth of energy up to twice before it's game over). When it's Game Over you can continue again of course and you're better off actually because you're only down one heart. But the Game Over prompt takes seconds to appear and then another second to actually load the room back up again. Plus the monsters are all regenerated again.

Nintendo have done wonders with the graphics and have decent controls (the lame camera and running aside), but they really need to revisit the core of game design. The Zelda series is still using saving conventions and level restarting principles that were necessary for the original 8-bit versions of the games with "save codes" for fixed locations and other early formats with limited save memory.

Why does Twilight only allow you 3 concurrent save games? Why no option to save directly to SD card instead of having to then copy from main save memory?

Anyone know of a cheat that helps with running/jumping? Something to auto-target or tweak the jump to always land on the desired mark would be awesome. If you're off by just a sliver you're in the lava, poof. Having a chicken permanently in my inventory would be great for jump/gliding.

While games like Wii sports are for non-gamers, Zelda is very much for Gamers. And I haven't been a "Gamer" in 20 years so it's taking some getting used to. I just wish right now I had a greater sense of excitement and less one of dread (of having to see that Lava dungeon for one minute more and knowing I have all the jumping to do over again...

The chicken thing is Ooccoo and I used it in the first dungeon (Forest Temple) to teleport outside to save - this is a big time saver to get back to the room you teleported out from. But that Dungeon was pretty straight forward and all its jumping around was very easy for me. In this dungeon it's not come up yet in the three first rooms.

I thought he'd keep running too. But it doesn't actually work that way. At least not from what I'm seeing now. Or rather, perhaps only when going UP. Get the camera angle so that you have to push to the right or left to make link walk straight ahead (relative to his own body of course). Now keep holding in that direction. He will start to run in an arc when the camera changes.

Anyway, I passed the third room! Woooooo! I now also have the Ooccoo and have saved the game (outside) while teleported out from the 4th room.

On the jumping attempt where I finally made it, I though to myself, "this is the one, this time you're finishing this bloody room." And I did!

Of course every other time I thought that I ended up in the fire.

Congrats!

Now, I haven't played the game in a couple weeks now (:(), but can't you move the camera most of the time? You could just keep the camera behind you all the time.

Anyway, I agree with you to a certain extent, but I haven't found the controls all that difficult.

hmm. I remember specifically testing for the running camera thing. I don't recall the specifics, though.

The only way I know to adjust the camera is to press the C button causing a first-person view. When released, the camera will be over link's shoulder.

After passing the lava jumping parts of that dungeon the rest ended up being fairly straight forward with some fun parts. For the most screwed up controls one needs only to start walking on walls. Ceilings no problem but walls, ugh...

Right now I'm back in Kakariko village picking up things like heart pieces and flying around with chickens.

Bruno, I think I saw you mention that Twilight Princess was your first Zelda in a long while, if ever. You may want to take a break and try to play N64's Ocarina of Time for a bit. The controls are simpler yet I'll bet the concepts are the same. This exercise may give you some practice with the camera (UP not always being UP, etc). After a short time, you'll know to move the stick in the direction Link is facing, no matter where the camera is.

I wonder if in the vastness of the Internet, there is someone who will take your saved game, get you past the trouble spot, and send the save back to you. That is, if you can download the save game to a computer or send it via the Opera browser. Now THAT'D be a good use for internal browsers.

Evening 2 of the Wii: Checked my Mii Parade, no Miis there. Popped in Zelda, got another hour and a half in. Got to the point where I sneak around and get the sword and shield, decided I needed a break from that for a bit.
Changed over to Sports, did some boxing, tennis and bowling, that does give you a workout.
Took a break, played with the weather channel, it's neat to look at.
Started up Rayman, wore myself out with all the pumping I had to do.
Went back to my Mii parade, still no one there.

Zelda is a great game, and I need to devote more time to it, I'll probably be cursing it during the jumping parts though.

I've found a huge problem with Zelda. While playing it, real-world time slips by at an incredibly fast rate. All it takes is one "just another 5 minutes and I'll shut it down" to find a whole hour gone by. Before you know it it's 4am and you're crawling into bed with, what in the morning will probably be, a pissed off girlfriend.

I don't know if I can stop playing this one to try the N64 Ocarina.... I do remember little parts of that one because it's probably the last I saw my brother play while we still lived together. I'd also have to borrow the N64 from my him as I don't believe that title has been release as part of teh Virtual Console yet, has it? Not to mention I also don't have any other controllers yet (classic or Gamecube). So it's a hard life and I'll have to stick with Twilight for now. Heh.

Yeah, the wall walking annoyed me too. I guess the C button was what I was thinking of. I tap that all the time so I have the camera behind me.

I'm glad to hear you're getting into it again

I'd recommend to sticking to one Zelda game at a time anyhow. I'm nearing the end of Wind Waker so I might finally start Twilight Princess soon.

As far as getting Ocrina of Time, I'd look around at the used game stores for this GameCube version.

Ok, I just finally had a Mii show up in the parade. Is there any way to find out more about them? This one has the name "Gord" but I have no idea who it is. I've added everyone from the BBS to my addressbook using their BBS names, but I can't see a way to find out what the link between the character and the address book entry is.

What happens on the receiver's end when you send someone a Mii manually using the send feature? Both my brother and another friend are the only two that show up in the friends list, but I don't have any Miis on parade from either of them.

I now know what happens when someone manually sends a Mii. The recipient gets notified and the new characters appear. In the parade there is no notification. I now have a Hulk Hogan in the parade as well - I think that one came from my brother's console.

Just finished the third dungeon in Zelda and I'm at one of those break points. I suppose I can make it another action session, but I've managed to put it down for now.

I thought the ESRB was voluntary and then only of concern when a game sits in a box on a shelf?

Besides they don't have a classification B for Bitmap.

I'm trying to keep most of today a "work day" but I've got the shakes bad to play a little Zelda. Damn, haven't had the fever this bad since Ultima 5 waaaay back.